Sunday, August 24, 2014

Thanks to Pete Frates, outfielder Boston College, who began this
challenge to spread positive awareness for his disease in 2013-14 after
being diagnosed with ALS at the age of 27 in 2013.

ALS [Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis] is a neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. With voluntary muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually lead to their death.

You can watch the purpose of this challenge in Pete's own words on ESPN:

Saturday, August 23, 2014

Thoreau, naturalist and early environmentalist, spent two years on Walden Pond in 1845, land owned by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

The
result of Thoreau's two year relation with nature, to him, his
religion, was the moments he observed nature in all of its holiness,
simultaneously observing his own state of mind and being, as well as
those who came to visit. Thoreau also managed to compare and contrast
the existence of man vs. nature.

In this volume, a diary of
sorts, the author describes in immense detail, the absolute wonder and
purity of nature, as well as his own day to day existence.

Thoreau
accomplished to not only write down his poetic and philosophical
findings, yet has chartered his own discovery, as a human being;
concluding that man and nature coexist, and everything is indeed
perception.

This volume is extremely insightful with far too
many passages to quote that cause one to ponder far beyond the
realms of the "typical" human psyche.

It is my experience and belief, along with
Thoreau, that once one truly communes with nature wholly, that second
sight is never lost. Difficulty in keeping that vision may depend upon ones return to society if one chooses to cease seeing the divinity
of nature daily.

This book, Thoreau's first, is not a
guide for the recluse, that is not what Thoreau was, nor a path to
wholeness or enlightenment; rather a light into the mind of one man who
chose to observe beauty and ugliness within himself, within nature,
within mankind.

What an interesting book. One I think most
people think is a complete "existential" work from front to back cover, and
it is, but in parts. It is also a daily journal of everything Thoreau did and
experienced. The most profound results of living two years on Walden
Pond, thankfully, exist eternally within the pages of this volume.

Friday, August 15, 2014

It is not that
hard, really, when you think about it. Wait, I don’t even want you to think
about anything at all.

Just as I am here
typing these words coming directly from an unknown source greater than myself:
one that I am unable to properly decipher, something that makes the wind
scream, the skies turn kaleidoscopes, the snowflakes look like diamonds and the
waters rush upon my bare feet in the sand — that energy, tap into that
instead.

You have it, we all
do. It is in our souls, and if you even try to tell me you do not have a soul,
well, how are you breathing, your heart beating, how are you even reading this?

It does not really
matter what I believe, you see, my purpose here today is to attempt to get you,
as many before have tried, to let go of all of those negative what
ifs floating around in that brain of yours.

You know they
exist, hiding back there in the attic of your head like some old dusty box that
you never open because memories come flooding in from the past that you never
addressed back then, so why address them now?

Why?

Because if you do
not sacrifice, soul, sickness, you are going to keep riding on a
psychotic, unending roller coaster, and not an enjoyable one either, of always
wanting more.

I don’t mean
success or achievement or even happiness, I mean those nasty trolls that wake
you up at night and bring a frown upon your face when no one is looking. Yes,
those. We all have them, after all, we are only human.

As Tracy Chapman
once wrote, “All That You Have Is Your Soul”, so at the end of the day,
when all is said and done, and you are alone with yourself in the dark, can you
honestly tell me that you have sacrificed your soul sickness?

If you can, good. Keep
doing that.

It is a constant
purge, a cleansing, rebirth, a hard drive reboot, whatever you wish to call it.

It is healthy, and
allows you to keep going, unlike those who choose, and yes, I said choose,
to stay stuck and be unhappy and moan and bitch and whine about
things that will never change the world, convince anyone around them that there
is good to be had from existence and that we live in a world both sane
and insane — those definitions have yet to be properly studied,
for everything is indeed perception.

For our experiment
today, this world is sane and insane, in constant flux, like everything, and
that is normal, it is how homeostasis is achieved. Not true balance,
that is impossible, that is perfection, and no one is perfect.

The world is
imperfect, humans are imperfect. we are supposed to be not perfect, so
stop obsessing about your body, your hair, your clothes, house, money, your
car, your spouse, children, the food you ate, and most especially, about
yourself. There are much more wondrous things to be focusing on:

“A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me with full
hands,How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more than he.”

~ Walt Whitman

Like that.

Exactly.

You see, the word
prophets, artists, change makers, and freethinkers, crazy as one must be, know
what I am talking about — they all understood, and still do: sacrificial,
soul, sickness.

They lived it,
breathed it, ate it, drank it, loved it, made love to it, despised it, and
invited it deep into every fiber of their beings on purpose, then spit
it out onto a canvas or paper or the sidewalk or into a microphone or the
garden or the meal they prepared and into lovemaking, because my oh my, that is
where soul sickness is sacrificed.

But be careful, I
am not advising promiscuity, for the soul is to be savored, respected, admired
and esteemed, like fine wine, a rose, like the wings of birds, like flight,
like a wild thoroughbred on the plains, and like you, reading this now,
wondering what I am asking you to do.

Do you know I once
wrote an entire poem on a napkin with a stick of black eyeliner because I did
not have a pen?

That is how easy
sacrificial, soul, sickness, is.

So do it. Right
now. I dare you. Whitman wants you to, I know he does:

“Clear and sweet is my soul, and clear and sweet is all that is
not my soul.”

I am no expert, nor
were any of the greats, yet they understood emotion, they understood empathy,
compassion, they knew what it felt like to hurt and be happy, simultaneously:

“I am the poet of the Body; And I am the poet of the Soul. The
pleasures of heaven are with me, and the pains of hell are with me…” ~ Walt
Whitman

I guess what I am
trying to say is: wake up, do not sell out, speak your mind, be nice, give,
help others because you help yourself when you do that. This is easy, it will
cost you nothing.

It is free, it
requires no education, no attending classes, you do not have to take any
medication, study the existentialists, go to therapy, meditate, study with a
guru, prescribe to any train of thought but the one that speaks to you every
single day.

I know sometimes you might ignore it,
your consciousness, that li’l devil, but start paying attention; you are
smarter than you give yourself credit for.

We are brilliant designs of nature, extravagant creations of the
most exuberant artists, nothing can compare to the excellence of the human
body, mind, and spirit. You do not even have to do anything but sacrifice the
sickness in your soul.

How does one do
this? Well, I cannot tell you that, what do I know?

I am just a hack
poet who cannot sleep, however I know that I am alive, somehow my heart beats,
the blood pumps, the grass grows, the birds fly, the sky does brighten, and I
know deep within the core of my heart that life is a gift and you need not
sacrifice your soul any longer, only the sickness inside of it.

Cease being a slave
to yourself. Start now.

Do me a favor. Go
into the bathroom. Look in the mirror. Really look at yourself.

Do you love what you see?

Tell yourself this:
I love you.

Then smile. Really smile.

Smile so huge that you feel it on your face and allow
your spirit to reflect back at you - your own beauty.

I dare you. Right now. Go do it.

I am waiting.

“It is time to explain myself — let us stand up.What is known I strip away,I launch all men and women forward with me into the Unknown.”

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

This volume is a most enlightening work encompassing the meaning of
unconditional love for all beings and states of being, the absolute
divine essence of pure love, and the majestic states of spirituality.

“Every true love and friendship is a story of unexpected
transformation. If we are the same person before and after we loved,
that means we haven't loved enough.”

This is a book that surpasses all organized faith, thought and current
societal standards. Elif manages to present a simple, innate idea to an
increasingly complex world. This is a volume to be read again and again
throughout a lifetime to keep oneself in check. This recent work by Elif Shafak is the most profound book I have read in a long time.

* * *

“The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It's the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.”

"The Giver" is a rare
glimpse into a world that Huxley and Orwell imagined in "Brave New
World" and "Animal Farm." Although the three are drastically different,
the theme of oppression and imagined equality are quite real. The
difference with "The Giver" lies within the shared bond between the
Giver and the Receiver.

Lowry manages to seamlessly attach the reader empathetically to several characters, allowing one to become part of a
world of sameness, devoid of all feeling, while simultaneously reading
with pure human emotion. This volume touches upon gifts bestowed upon us
all, the root of all spirituality, the power to see beyond and beneath,
and to experience divine love.

I never wished for this to end. The need
to keep reading beyond what is written is immense. This story is
compelling and demands continuation.

“The man that I named the Giver passed along to the boy knowledge,
history, memories, color, pain, laughter, love, and truth. Every time
you place a book in the hands of a child, you do the same thing. It is
very risky. But each time a child opens a book, he pushes open the gate
that separates him from Elsewhere. It gives him choices. It gives him
freedom. Those are magnificent, wonderfully unsafe things.